The nose is nutty, salty and woody. There's also some coca cola syrup, mint and a whiff of smoke. More vanilla and wood spice with time. “Twigs in the rain.” ← I was clearly starting to feel the bourbon at this point.

The palate is sweet and fruity, with limes, oranges and black cherries. Caramel, smoked nuts and just a little bit of woody bitterness.

The sweet and tart finish is full of oranges and tannins.

When I DID know what I was drinking

The nose is all over the place. To wit: paste, honey, lemon, oak, sugar, ground mustard seed and burnt peanuts.

The palate is mostly made up of dried grass clippings. Then there’s tart citrus, earth, an odd sweetness and a hint of eggs.

Grass clippings and tannins in the finish. Tart and not that sweet.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Unlike the previous Elijah Craigs, something definitely happened to this whiskey in the two weeks between the tastings. It was much better when I tried it blind. The palate was very strange during the retry. Even so, it's curious that I gave this edition such a high score in my review three years ago. It's another good bourbon, and I'd be happy to buy a bottle of the stuff I tried blindly, but a number of the other Heaven Hill brands (such as HH BIB, Evan Williams, Henry McKenna) often match or top this edition's quality in their own more recent versions.